490 THE MAKING OF THE ' OEIGIN ' 



making clearer the true affinities and world-range of disput- 

 able genera and species. Complete and accurate classification 

 according to nature was the first step towards finding the key 

 to it all. 



Thus Darwin, in the act of asking his aid, stimulated his 

 native bent. He was encouraged in his inclination to deal 

 with the wider bearings of his observations, which, in Darwin's 

 eyes, made his Flora and his letters so different from the works 

 of so many other systematists, remarkable for their lack of 

 instructive general results. And though special researches 

 such as these appeared to distract him from his main work on 

 the Southern Floras, yet they shaped his own views and added 

 to his reputation. 



I am almost sorry for your eternal additional labours on 

 the Galapagos Flora [writes Darwin in September 1846 ; 

 but adds emphatically], as yet your work assuredly has not 

 been thrown away, as many have referred to your curious 

 geographical results on this archipelago. 



Similarly, of a preliminary sketch of his Tasmanian results, 

 in 1844 : 



I trust that your sketch will not have cost you ultimately 

 loss of time, as, judging by myself, preliminary sketches and 

 resketches do much good. . . . Seriously, I almost grieved, 

 when I saw the length of your letter, that you should have 

 given up so much time to me. Sir William will think me a 

 bad friend to you, but anyhow, I trust, the sketch part of 

 your geographical results will not turn out lost time. 



These generalisations gave special value to his work and led 

 Darwin to repudiate his description of himself as not possessing 

 a philosophic mind, ' one of the greatest falsehoods ever told 

 by implication ; read your own Galapagos paper and be 

 ashamed of yourself ' (the whole passage is given in C.D. ii. 

 37). In short (March 81, 1845) : 



Nothing would do you so much good as a little vanity, 

 and then you would not talk of collecting facts for others, 

 when, say just what you please, I am sure no one could put 

 them to better use than yourself. 



